Why You Need Data Management, Governance, and Analytics Capabilities in One Unified Platform

“Data culture” is a term that is frequently tossed around by chief digital officers (CDOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs) alike.

Data culture refers to behaviors and beliefs embraced by a group that values and practices the use of data to improve decision-making. Businesses that support a data culture weave these practices and tenets throughout the entire organization, from operations to profit and loss (P&L).

We have entered into an era in which data is ubiquitous in almost every aspect of our lives. As a result, data is now a commodity that is rapidly increasing in both value and complexity. 

But here’s the problem: For businesses, data is only as valuable as the actionable insights it provides. And the more complex the data environment, the harder it is to distill out the important information. In fact, in a 2019 Accenture study, 38 percent of CFOs said that difficulty standardizing enterprise data or agreeing upon a single version of the truth is a major barrier to fully leveraging new technologies.

Without consistent, high-quality data, businesses are at risk of losing revenue, missing valuable growth opportunities, and damaging their reputation, which can lead to diminished standing in the marketplace. 

That’s where data management, governance, and analytics enter into the equation.

Three Ways to Improve Data Quality

Done well, these three capabilities ensure your organization’s data is accurate, standardized, and a trusted source of valuable insight across every business system. And they all have very different roles within the business.

Data Management

Data management involves all of the plans, processes, policies, and practices a business uses to collect, store, control, deliver, and modify data and information within the organization’s systems. Employing proper data management is one way that your business can be proactive about improving the quality and trustworthiness of its data. 

Duplicate client records—with or without missing or incomplete information—are just one example of why data management is important. These types of errors potentially lead to more serious outcomes, such as missed invoicing or delays in billing. You can mitigate all of these issues with the right processes in place.

Data Governance

To borrow the Data Governance Institute’s words, data governance is “a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.” 

What that means for the rest of us is that data governance helps us assign authority and control over data assets so the data is consistent and can be used across the business for decision-making and to support business outcomes.

Data Analytics

To put it simply, good data analytics are the result of good data. The outcome of data analytics should center around the ability of your business to derive actionable and insightful information from it. 

Together, data management and data governance are an information powerhouse that fuels data analytics. Businesses can use them to define business objectives, ensure compliance, and, above all else, improve data quality initiatives.

Data quality is a key driver for core business processes, such as order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and material management. Missing, inaccurate, and duplicate data will have far-reaching implications on the business outcomes of these processes. 

For example, errors in billing information will result in lost revenue. Without accurate and up-to-date customer data, the organization misses out on valuable growth opportunities. The organization’s reputation will also take a hit if there aren’t sufficient governance policies in place to prevent a data compliance breach.

Unified Data Management, Governance, and Analytics Is Essential

By unifying data management, governance, and analytics into one platform, organizations can bridge the gap between IT and business and work together to resolve data quality issues across the organization.

This approach allows data management teams with different skill sets (e.g., master data management, governance, integration) to coordinate their efforts with the end goal of creating a centralized, consistent data source that can be used across the organization to:

• Tie disparate data sources together for optimized analytics.
• Deliver actionable outcomes and conclusions.
• Empower business users to maintain data quality.
• Reduce costly data errors and staff time required for data quality.
• Accelerate and enhance data quality initiatives.
• Promote integrated data governance across the organization.
• Reduce disruptions, compliance issues, and customer dissatisfaction.
• Jumpstart future transformations and data initiatives.
  
  

Data Quality Is Everybody’s Business

Whether your business objectives include expanding into new markets, decreasing operational overhead, or planning an IT infrastructure upgrade, it is hard to have confidence that any decision is based on accurate and complete information if you don’t trust your data.

In today’s data-hungry business environment, every user in the value chain must be able to access and leverage data to drive decision-making, meet business objectives, and achieve initiatives, such as improving customer satisfaction and reducing wasted effort. 

Implementing a unified data management, governance, and analytics platform creates a single trusted data source by standardizing data, enforcing data management policies, and enabling data-supported initiatives across the entire organization.

Learn more about Syniti's Data Assessment Express for your next data quality initiative. 

Standardizing your data and aligning your processes organization-wide can be a daunting task. Syniti provides two different ways to make this transition easier. Start by talking to a Syniti expert or scheduling a demonstration so you can determine which option is best for your business.